A pro bono client of mine is looking for a new web hosting company after its previous
host www.onepine.com folded. I gave them a list of hosts suggested under a thread
here but being once burned, my client suggested a Dellhost, because of its brand
recognition.

Has anyone used Dellhost? If so what has been your experience good or bad. My client
only needs basic hosting as they are not selling anything on their site.

Dear Sir:

I wouldnt go with them -- I had 3 sites with them before starting my web hosting business -- to say the least they had problems every week -- hence, the birth of my company came to mind

just my 2 cents

thanks
bobby

I wouldnt go with them -- I had 3 sites with them before starting my web hosting business -- to say the least they had problems every week -- hence, the birth of my company came to mind

I am just curious, what kind of problems did they have? You would think that dell would have things down and would'nt have any problems.

I have a dedicated server with DellHost. At the time the price was awesome and our machine has always run great. The sales guy even activated our account and I was on the machine before we paid (I think they were a little eager for sales).

Certainly hardware is a DellHost strength. In 17 months I've rebooted the machine once, and that was just to activate quotas.

I think the data center is run by/shared with Interliant. I'm not sure where support calls/emails are routed.

As far as I know, they still don't include any sort of cpanel/whm. You get the machine and OS with apache and other basic services. I've replaced most things except of course the RedHat OS.

We have them do all DNS (it's free). Their response time for dedicated support has been poor: I submit about 40 zone changes/day. It often takes several days for a response, and 50% of the changes are done incorrectly. Obviously this is not going to work for an real Web host.

I recently requested pricing for upgrades. The weekly tape backup is apparently not a drive image, so if I have RAID changes I have to rebuild all of my accounts and directory structures. The support I got regarding the change repeatedly failed to answer all my questions and they eventually recommended simply calling their support.

I haven't called for a while (I've called about 3 times), but when I did call their 800 number I got a real person almost immediately and they were courteous. Once I needed an actual server admin and I was talking to him in less than an hour. There was no charge for that level of support.

A lot of the support changes seem to be fairly recent. Either due to lots of growth and/or layoffs after 9-11.

DellHost's shared hosting setups are weak. No shell access. I think they're completely leveraging the Dell name for that part of their service.

Good luck!

My client would only need shared hosting. I had a feeling that for that type of hosting the support level might be lacking, but the client is a bit skittish after their former host just closed down with no advanced notice and not reponse afterwards to email. It was a real mess.

Originally posted by phvt
I think the data center is run by/shared with Interliant. I'm not sure where support calls/emails are routed.


Interliant was originally the technology provider behind DellHost. I don't know if they still are or not, but back in August, Dell sold DellHost to Sprint. Apparently they haven't updated their site to reflect that. I don't know if the name of the service will change, either.

http://www.internetwk.com/story/INW20010831S0011

Kevin

Interliant still comes up as the network that dellhost is on, though I can't tell you what they are doing in terms of new accounts, etc., or anything else about current accounts.

If your client is willing to pay and it is a small site, head straight on to futurequest.net :)

Knowing that Dellhost.com was sold by Dell to Sprint is useful information. Thanks. I wonder if there has been any change in the level of service particularly for shared server accounts.

I sent an email to sales@dellhost.com on January 16, and I haven't received a reply yet. Prompt and appropriate replies to inqueries are very important to me. This is a definite minus against Dellhost.com.

I always thought that dellhost.com was not owed by dell.

I just got finished investigating dellhost.com's shared hosting account. I decided not to go with them because:

1. They took about 24 hours to reply to each of my questions via email.

2. They gave me terse answers, which required followup/clarification.

3. When I asked if they supported any database on their Linux hosting plan (they didn't mention anything about databases in their info, which I thought was odd) I got the reply "we support Access databases". I replied "Access on Linux???" and i never heard from them again.

4. I sent them an email describing to them my issues with their handling of my queries, and that I did not feel comfortable with their support. They never responded.

I assume, they don't need my business. Case closed on dellhost.com for me.

Umm,

I haven't used dellhost.com, but I haven't heard anything good about them.

I reciently went with a "private server" from remarkablehosting.com after an extensive search. The service is most impressive. I haven't had to telephone them because they respond to my emails so fast (even @ 2 a.m. and during the superbowl).

Don't go cheap (unless you just wanna play). Your hosting partner IS your business partner.

I've had poor service from *****.com and a couple others.

Remarkablehosting.com was the right business decision for me. I would reconmend putting them on your short list.